Little did we know, our daughter is a local celebrity. We visited the orphanage yesterday and everyone knew her. Every room we walked into, people would exclaim “Meigui!”. We were even just walking down the street this evening about 30 minutes away from the orphanage and someone we passed on the street (remember there are over 6 million people in this city), said “Meigui!” and knew who she was! She is called Meigui so much so that Tom and I are considering having her legal name changed from Elizabeth Jane YeXin Harris to Elizabeth Jane Meigui Harris when we get home. We’ll see.
Starting Tuesday night Ellie spiked a fever and was clearly not feeling well. On Wednesday morning she vomited twice, as well as had a fever. She also wasn’t drinking any fluids. We spoke with our guide and she arranged for us to take her to the doctor at the orphanage. When we arrived at the orphanage we were surprised to find an almost garden like atmosphere. It was beautiful and peaceful. Our guide told us that about 700 children live there. 500 of them live in the surrounding foster village with foster families and about 200, mostly the very young, live in the orphanage. About 90% of the children have some type of mental or physical special need. We met with the lady who had brought Ellie to the civil affairs office and she took us to see the doctor. They took Ellie’s temperature and we told her the symptoms. She looked at her throat and said she had an infection. She prescribed two medications and instructed us to give Tylenol for a fever. The lady from the orphanage went to the pharmacy in the hospital and got the two prescriptions. The packages were totally in Mandarin. Thankfully our guide translated the instructions. We later googled the medications and they’re apparently some type of root based cold remedy. The orphanage also gave us one of their bottles to try. When we opened the bottle it was obvious why she wasn’t taking fluids for us. The hole on the nipple of the orphanage bottle is gigantic. It’s the size of a small pen. She has been taking fluids much better since. I say fluids. It’s more of a soup. 3 scoops of formula and 3 scoops of rice cereal to 6 ounces of water is pretty thick.
After seeing the doctor we went to see the play room. Everyone was excited to see Ellie. It was neat to see the little friends she played with, but also sad to know these children are waiting on families. The truth of the matter is, some may never have a family. We went from the playroom to Ellie’s “class” room. We met her nannies, volunteers, and friends. We met a little boy, apparently her “boyfriend” whose family is going to travel to meet him soon. The nannies asked us to try to find his family so we could keep the kids in touch. Thank goodness for facebook! We have already found his family! We could tell during the visit that Ellie’s nanny truly loves her. She shared some of Ellie’s newborn pictures with us and they gave us back the USB drive we sent for them to put pictures on. We’ll see what we find there when we get home. Ellie’s nanny fed her lunch and while she was eating she reached out for me! Ellie has been clinging to Tom like Velcro and more or less rejecting me. This behavior is very typical for toddlers as they go through the trauma of leaving the orphanage, but it’s hard on everyone. We still have a lot of ground to cover with attachment, but this was a big step. She also reached for Tom when the nanny was holding her. This made her nanny tear up. I can’t imagine the heartbreak. It has to be bittersweet to prepare a child you have raised to meet her family, but then have to watch as she chooses them over you. We were given the contact information for the orphanage, including the orphanage email address so we can send pictures, and we definitely will. We were told that there was a volunteer who especially loved Ellie and we were given two bags of clothes and toys that she had bought for her. We spent a good amount of time in Ellie’s class with the people who know her best. Even though there is a language barrier, we were able to laugh and smile together over this special little girl. We were also given the opportunity to see Ellie’s bed. She got to sit in it one last time. We were invited to eat lunch with the orphanage staff and we did. The food was really good and everyone was very welcoming. No matter the quality of an orphanage, it is still not a family, however, if Ellie could not be in a family her first year, we are thankful she was at the orphanage in Kunming. It is a very, very special place. After lunch we left from there and did some more exploring of Ellie’s past, the details of which we will share with her when she is older. We are thankful, though, that we were able to find more information in some areas than we thought we might.
Today was purely a sight seeing day. We went to a Tea Center and were taught all about Pu’er tea and other types of tea. We learned how to do the tea ceremony and got to taste different teas, one of which was from a 500 year old tea and had aged 19 years. Apparently Pu’er tea is similar to wine in that it ages and gains taste and monetary value as it gets older. The woman who hosted us has a Bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a Master’s degree in Tea. Who knew it was such a thing?
After the tea ceremony we went to the Di’an Lake area, huge tourist spot, and went to a Minorities Village. The best way to describe this I think would be sort of like EPCOT at Disney World, except instead of different countries, it was different minority groups, mostly mountain dwelling people, from the Yunnan province. In each area they had an example house, people dressed in traditional clothing from that group, people cooking foods, etc. It was really neat! We ate lunch once we got back to town and made it back to the hotel in the early afternoon. Since Ellie had napped in the van and at the minority village, she wasn’t up for napping. I haven’t tried to push too much on trying to get her to accept me, but Tom was exhausted, so I put her in the Tula carrier and we went for a walk. We went to Starbucks and for the first time since we’ve been here, I was actually able to to communicate to the barista that I just wanted a black coffee. It was glorious. Ellie and I then went and walked around Green Lake Park. She fussed off and on until we got to the park, and then there was just too much to look at to fuss. We watched paddle boats, saw the koi ponds, saw a wedding photo session, and then hung out to watch people dancing in the park.
Tomorrow we will leave Kunming and fly to Guangzhou. This is where the US consulate is that issues immigrant visas for adoptions. We will be sad to leave this beautiful city, especially since Guangzhou is notoriously hot and humid, but it will be nice to be able to connect with other adoptive families and possibly not be quite the spectacle that we are here in Kunming.
Please continue to pray for Ellie. She seems to be feeling much better. Pray for Graham and Charlie. They are missing us and we are missing them. Pray for Tom as he has the physically exhausting task of Ellie only wanting him to do anything for her. Pray that she will continue to open up to me, and little pieces and moments when I can get them. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family. It really means a lot to us.
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